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it all begins with emu asking, “rui-kun, did you get a little taller?” to ruin tsukasa’s day. she’s been eyeing him ever since he’d walked closer to the group, and it’s the first observation she’s made. she shuffles a little closer to him to check, eyeing him up and down to make sure.
now that she’s next to him and not halfway across the practice room, she thinks that she’s probably right. “is that so? perhaps i have,” he says, keeping his answer as vague as possible. it’s only the first week of the new school year and it’s not like rui has actually felt any taller, but emu’s sharp eyes don’t let him escape the true nature of his growth. “i think so! i can sense it.”
earlier that day, it had been the first week back from the holidays. kamiyama’s corridors were completely impossible to squeeze through, filled with people reuniting with friends and alarming levels of chatter, practically packing all hallways with the student body.
rui is one of them — however not talking to anyone, instead waiting for the rest of his friends to show up amongst the crowd. nene is the first of them to arrive, and she already looks dishevelled from having been pushed through the crowd.
“can’t these students catch up anywhere else?” is the first thing she mumbles about, patting down her crumpled uniform. “everyone knows the canteen is open in the morning too.”
“ah, good morning nene,” rui returns her warm greeting. “i’m sure the canteen must be just as packed right now.”
once she’s satisfied with her uniform, nene looks up, and the fact that she has to crane her neck even more to meet his eyes really sticks out to her right now.
her eyes narrow. “what the..”
and he was already tall to begin with! that was an accepted truth. an unfair truth, tsukasa would call it. he never ate his vegetables, made an effort to only visit his usual restaurants, as he knew they’d be able to cater to his so called ‘necessary modifications’, and overall just avoided ever having to put one near his mouth. as such, one would expect his growth to be much lesser than, well, what it had evolved to today.
where nene has to crane her neck to look at him.
“what’s wrong?” rui asks, staring back at her, unknowing of all the horrors in the world.
“nothing’s wrong,” nene sighs, giving him an unimpressed look and turning to her locker with only one thing on her mind:
wait till tsukasa sees this.
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“—tsukasa, don’t you think rui has grown just a little taller? emu thinks so too.”
her words seep into tsukasa’s system like venom, and as predicted, tsukasa doesn’t stop refuting nene’s claim for the next half an hour.
“nene-chan, what’s happened to tsukasa-kun?” emu asks at lunchtime.
“he’s coping poorly with rui’s growth spurt,” nene says, unbothered. he is not even looking at either of them as he explains his case about the unfairness of the world. it looks like he’s making a very obnoxious pep talk, but nene has already drowned out his reasoning with a game running on her phone.
emu looks at tsukasa, not perturbed in the slightest by his antics. “tsukasa-kun, are you jealous?”
for a moment, tsukasa is at a loss for words. or any thoughts, for that matter. he contemplates rolling on the floor, but decides against it as it would dirty his uniform. and stain his stellar reputation as class representative. “no,” he says after a pause, and stabs at a carrot in his lunchbox.
“that wasn’t very convincing, tsukasa-kun,” emu says, but smiles and looks convinced anyway. nene’s expression however, remains unfazed. he could be such an oddity, she thinks to herself.
“hello, rui-kun!”
tsukasa looks up. nene doesn’t. rui has entered the rooftop, predictably bypassing all normal food options by holding a sandwich with meat as its sole filling. it’s very likely that rui’s bloodstream doesn’t contain a single vitamin or fibre obtainable from vegetables. it may not physically possible for most humans in general, but rui has never really qualified for the standards of ‘most humans’. tsukasa actually suspects that rui could defy the limits of human biology in his quest to constantly outgrow him.
he begrudgingly looks up at rui. “hello,” he says.
rui smiles, taking a seat as if he’s got sunshine growing out of his pockets. he’s still taking bites out of his vegetable-less sandwich, while emu talks about an encounter she had on the way to school.
“perhaps it’s just back to school jitters,” rui suggests as he listens.
tsukasa doesn’t bother to pay any attention to that exchange, deciding between glaring at rui or convincing himself that his height change never happened. not that nene had any proof, after all, so he could just write it off as a lie.
“what do you think, tsukasa-kun?” rui asks mid-thought. he even has the nerve to smile at tsukasa after — he has so much unbridled audacity that it’s astonishing.
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although, a few hours later, nene is proven right.
with having to update their student health profiles yearly, their heights and weights are measured and marked down by the school nurses. once rui has stepped off the machine, a +2 centimetre addition to his height has been written down in the form of a paper slip for him to hold onto. the change is hardly noticeable if he’s being honest, but he’s pleased with the development nonetheless.
rui makes his way out of the station they have set up to take their measurements, only to see tsukasa practically skipping over to where he is seated. he’s in a very good mood, judging from his expression, already waving his little slip of paper around like a a trophy. once close enough, he waves the slip to show rui the +1 addition.
“behold!” he announces, his booming voice loud enough to garner him some looks. “i’ve grown one whole centimetre! stardom is waiting for me, rui! i may even grow to tower over you in the foreseeable future.”
“very impressive, tsukasa-kun!” rui remarks, slowly stuffing his slip into his cardigan pocket. unfortunately, tsukasa notices. he tilts the hand holding rui’s piece of paper to look at what has been written on and gapes.
rui sweats. “it’s only two centimeters,” he points out, subconsciously shrinking into his seat.
this is clearly the wrong thing to say, as rui sees at least five different emotions flicker across tsukasa’s face, one of them being briefly offended before his expression slips into something far more dejected. “two whole centimetres, rui! that’s completely unfair!”
“but you’ve grown yourself too,” rui had never minded his height the way it was and the new addition doesn’t bother him either. he hadn’t even meant for tsukasa to see his slip; if anything, he thinks it’s impressive for tsukasa to be growing at his age.
tsukasa glares at him for a moment, but there’s no genuine heat behind it. rather than looking intimidating, he just looks more annoyed than angry. “i cannot fathom how you can even grow with your.. less-than-usual diet,” he grumbles, crossing his arms. his annoyance is only further endearing rui.
before he gets a moment to respond, tsukasa continues on with his rant. “you don’t even eat vegetables! i just don’t understand it, and now we’re nine whole centimetres apart—”
rui has the audacity to look amused by this. “and that’s because tsukasa-kun likes me enough to eat them for me,” he says casually, in that sickeningly smooth tone, which is just terrible. it’s terrible because it’s so rui — playing his cards just right to throw him off-guard. it’s as though it is his stun skill that conveniently doesn’t come with a cooldown, and sometimes when he just pairs it with a smile after, it makes tsukasa want to shove his head into the nearest body of water and yell.
“and i’m reconsidering that decision,” tsukasa says, keeping his tone even while fighting down the growing heat in his face.
“how cruel,” rui feigns sadness, on the contrary looking very pleased instead. tsukasa struggles to think rationally. if nene were here, she would tell him that finding rui even remotely charming is a terrible take, and probably a sign of permanent brain injury. “i wouldn’t even have to do it in the first place if you would eat your own vegetables!”
“but you offered it so kindly the last time we went out to eat together,” rui says, and tsukasa cannot stand to look at him anymore.
because he doesn’t even have a good retort for that, and because he did offer to eat his lettuce for him. it had been out of the kindness of his heart, because he knew that rui would immediately pick them out of his food, even if he told him not to, and then lament about the lonely vegetables until tsukasa gave in and ate them for him. he had only offered to save time!
tsukasa thinks about pulling the fire alarm, but it probably wouldn’t fix anything. knowing his luck, now made even more disastrous by rui’s height change, that rui has probably memorised the entire layout of the school, knows all the fire evacuation routes, and would thus drag tsukasa along with him to avoid the crowd. all while tsukasa tried not to form any thoughts on rui’s hand tugging on his.
however, he still thinks about it wistfully, even if it’s just for a moment.
“—tsukasa-kun? are you listening?”
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rui spends the most of the next week wondering how emu even realised that he'd grown. it explained how looking over heads in class became just the tiniest bit easier, and it explained why tsukasa’s expression contorted into mild annoyance every time he pats him on the shoulder.
maybe tsukasa complaining about that nine centimetre difference between their heights is finally getting to him. even so, rui doesn't mind the new addition; he thinks that he might like it more than their previous eight centimeters.
rui also spends the better part of that week avoiding the sore subject about his height changing when he talks to tsukasa. it's difficult in the sense that tsukasa is constantly reminded so without him having to say anything at all, and the fact that it earns him stricter enforcement of the school rules.
“stand up straight!” he would remind him. “and please, tuck in your shirt!”
however, it gets unavoidable, when rui spots tsukasa in the storeroom of the theme park, gathering props for the next scene they have to do. he has yet to annoy him for the day, so he peeks his head at the doorframe on an unsuspecting tsukasa to see what he’s doing.
the cupboard in the corner is open as tsukasa stretches to reach the top shelf, where the swords are stored. rui recalls storing them away there as a last minute decision as he had packed up for the day in quite the rush. of course, the top shelf at which any prop was placed at would be hardly a deterrent for tsukasa, seeing that rui has caught him jumping multiple times to reach what he wanted.
this time, he is thankfully trying to stretch just a little taller instead of causing an earthquake, one hand balanced outward while as the other's fingers just slightly brush the handle of the swords. rui supposes that he’s trying to use his growth to his advantage, although unsuccessful.
an amusing scene, but they have practice to attend to, after all!
he comes up behind tsukasa, holding his breath as he leans up; ignoring that he too, has to stretch to reach the swords as well, but eventually reaches just past tsukasa hand to grab the props without much struggle. “it seems that i’ve saved you the trouble,” rui smiles, setting the swords on the table next to them.
he doesn't even get the chance to take a step back when tsukasa swiftly whirls around, his eyes blazing with what looks like fury with a splash of annoyance. rui still hasn’t even gotten to taken a breath yet when he realises that there’s a little thrill he gets when he notices that tsukasa has to tilt his head up in the slightest just to look at him, especially when they're this close.
“nonsense! i could've gotten it myself, rui," tsukasa bristles, his eyes and tone as sharp as daggers. he snatches the props and holds it close to his chest, as if ready for battle if rui said another wrong thing.
rui hums as if in thought. “i’m sure you are fully capable, tsukasa-kun, but it saved you the time of jumping, no?" he replies innocently. “i wouldn’t want our star to strain himself by stretching a muscle too hard.”
tsukasa’s expression shifts from furious at the obvious jab, to displeased resignation. before he even has the chance to say anything, or to perhaps stab at rui’s torso with the swords, rui swoops in quickly and gives him a small pat to the top of his head.
“see you on the stage, tsukasa-kun,” rui says, giving him another one of his signature smiles. sure, scheduled practice doesn’t start for another fifteen minutes, since the both of them are here early, but he thinks maybe leaving the storeroom just before he faces tsukasa’s wrath would be a good idea.
tsukasa looks conflicted, even stunned as rui takes one last glance at him before heading out, still blinking in the same position. he's holding the swords on top of his chest as if they’re the most important thing in the world, except now his cheeks are a glowing soft red; and rui isn't completely sure if it's from pure anger, from being worked up about rui’s indirect jab at his height, or even maybe from the little pat he’d given him on his head.
however, in all honesty, rui would prefer the latter.